The present invention relates to a fluorescent X-ray spectroscope.
In a fluorescent X-ray spectroscopy, although the automation of the spectrum analysis has been proceeding, there is still a case where it is needed to confirm with the naked eyes the position and shape of a peak on spectrums of fluorescent X-rays obtained as a result of measurement thereof. Therefore, a method for displaying spectrums of fluorescent X-rays is a very important factor for a fluorescent X-ray spectroscope.
The most typical display method of a conventional fluorescent X-ray spectroscope is a method of display made with the energy of fluorescent X-rays being plotted along the abscissa axis and the intensity of fluorescent X-rays being plotted along the ordinate axis. Further, it was arranged that fine portions could also be seen by changing the magnifications of the ordinate and abscissa axes.
In the case of using this method, when trying to see a very small peak, in many cases a large peak does not completely fall within a display range and so it is difficult to read the positional relationship thereof with a very small peak. In such a case, there has hitherto been adopted a method of display made with the ordinate axis being used as representing the logarithm of the intensity.
In the present invention, there is provided a method for solving the following two problems in view of the conventional technique described under the preceding item.
The first problem is explained. Although it is possible to visually simultaneously compare with each other the peaks whose intensity levels are greatly different from each other by using the ordinate axis as representing the logarithm of the fluorescent X-ray intensity, the shape of each peak greatly differs from that in the case where the ordinate axis is used as representing the fluorescent X-ray intensity itself. Therefore, there was the drawback that difficulties arose in intuitionally grasping the shapes of the peaks and the intensity levels. According to the present invention, there is provided a fluorescent X-ray spectroscope having the function of enabling the visual and simultaneous comparison between the peaks greatly differring from each other in terms of the intensity level to be made while suppressing the changes in shape of the peaks.
The second problem is explained. This concerns the problem that arises where spectrums having therein a positive intensity and a negative intensity therein in a form of co-existence must be displayed as in the case of expressing the difference between two spectrums. In such a case, when it is wanted to simultaneously display peaks whose intensity levels greatly differ from each other, the attempt to use a method wherein the logarithm of the fluorescent X-ray intensity is plotted along the ordinate axis results in a failure to display excellently due to the fact that since the logarithm is discontinuous at the value of 0, the ordinate axis becomes discontinuous with the value of 0 as a border. According to the present invention, there is provided a fluorescent X-ray spectroscope having the function of simultaneously displaying peaks of different intensity levels in a form wherein these peaks can be easily discriminated even where the spectrums are ones wherein a positive intensity and a negative intensity co-exit.